While the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) demands action against resellers and calls for wholesale markets in Granma, the decisions of the government itself and the lack of supply alternatives keep merchants and consumers trapped in a price crisis that authorities acknowledge but fail to resolve.
During a regular meeting of the Provincial Committee of the PCC held in Bayamo, the first secretary of the organization in the eastern region, Yudelkis Ortiz Barceló, questioned the activities of vendors who "sell anything anywhere" and raise prices beyond the established controls.
Yanetsy Rodríguez Sampson, a member of the Provincial Bureau, pointed out that one of the solutions involves promoting wholesale markets that facilitate the supply for economic actors and reduce their dependence on intermediaries, as highlighted in a report by the official newspaper La Demajagua this Saturday.
The complaint comes after the government lifted price caps on essential products such as chicken, oil, powdered milk, pasta, and sausages, through Resolution 150/2026 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices.
Following the measure, prices increased significantly. Oil, for instance, went from a regulated maximum price of 990 pesos per liter to over 4,000 pesos in August, with peaks reaching up to 7,000 pesos in some areas of the country.
The eastern province still does not have a wholesale market from the Abasto.cu network, like the one that opened on October 11 in Sancti Spíritus, the first of its kind in the country. There, a minimum purchase of 200 dollars or 24,000 Cuban pesos was established.
Rodríguez acknowledged that the economic transformations led by the authorities are making progress, although "they are still insufficient," and warned that "every unmet goal is a debt to the people."
On her part, the governor of Granma, Yanetsy Terry Gutiérrez, insisted that business autonomy is not "an option", but rather an obligation. She also questioned companies that limit themselves to renting spaces to pay salaries without promoting new productive activities. "The easiest thing is to rent spaces and use that to pay the workers, but where is the development?", she asked.
Reports about middlemen and reselling are spreading to other regions of the country. In September, residents of Cojímar, in Havana, reported that resellers were hoarding a large part of the production from a state bakery to sell it at significantly higher prices.
Moreover, the state media published a report questioning who really sets prices in Cuba, citing as an example that in Matanzas, a bag of milk reached a cost of 6,500 pesos at one point and 4,500 at another in the same city.
However, on the other hand, Cubans have questioned the government's responsibility for the price hike and for an economic model that, in their view, benefits intermediaries while leaving consumers at the mercy of increasingly high rates.
Among the criticisms are the lack of domestic production to compete with imported products, the difficulties in investing, and the absence of stable legal guarantees for businesses. Opinions suggest that the problem is not limited to resellers, but also involves state policies and the economic conditions that allow speculation to thrive.
Similarly, citizens question why authorities focus price controls on private businesses, while state-owned stores that sell in dollars and MLC maintain prices that are deemed inaccessible for a large portion of the population. In this regard, they demand that these establishments also be monitored.
The complaints highlight the responsibility of the State, which not only regulates the market but also manages a network of stores whose prices and profits, as reported by the complainants, rise by up to 300% compared to the original prices, resembling those of destinations like Dubai, despite the low incomes of many Cuban workers.
The Party meeting in Granma also discussed other economic projects, including the cultivation of rice by a Vietnamese entity in Yara and the production of 5,000 tons of sugar at the Enidio Díaz Machado sugar mill, in collaboration with a private company.
At the end of the meeting, Ortiz Barceló stated that "the role of the Party is not to better explain the crisis, but to take action to overcome it," in a gathering where the authorities themselves acknowledged that the outcomes of the transformations are still below expectations.
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